This post begins a multi-post series regarding my thoughts on Proto-
Uralic.
My main thesis is that Proto-Uralic, at its earliest stage, was
entirely or mostly isolating.
For right now, I will give my reconstruction of the Proto-Uralic
pronominal series.
At its earliest stage, Proto-Uralic had little or no concept
of 'grammatical plurality.' Thus, there were three initial
pronominal sets, for each of the three persons (both singular and
plural). These were 1st person *mi, 2nd person *ti, and 3rd person
*sä.
The later singular forms used a singulative (emphatic) suffix -na,
giving 1sg *mi-na > minä, 2sg *ti-na > tinä, and 3sg *sä-na > sänä.
The plural forms also used a suffix -ja, meaning 'many,' and giving
1pl *mi-ja > mijä, 2pl *ti-ja > tijä, and 3pl *sä-ja > säjä.